Retro EV Roadster Combines Futuristic Tech and Throwback Styling

• Weismann carbon-bodied EV roadster dubbed “Project Thunderball” is set to go on sale in 2024.

• The production version promises 670 hp, though the as-tested prototype had less. Performance is promised to be quicker than company’s old BMW-powered lineup.

• The boutique automaker says the production car will be available Stateside.

Are the best cars bought or built? The long-running debate is set to continue into the electric age. Some enthusiasts are already constructing EV classics using transplanted battery drivetrains, and while some of these conversions are finished to a high standard, others are terrifyingly poor.

There is also going to be another way: buying a brand-new, retro electric sports car. Several big automakers have dropped hints that some of their greatest hits are set to return as modern EVs, but now a small German automaker has got ahead of the pack with its own fully electric roadster. Meet Wiesmann’s “Project Thunderball.”

The company’s name may be familiar. Wiesmann produced a range of muscular coupes and roadsters in the around the turn of the millenium, these combining backward looking design obvious inspired by ’50s and ’60s classics with modern BMW powerplants. Wiesmann never officially sold its cars in the US, although you may well have experienced virtual versions in various video games. The company’s first incarnation went bankrupt in 2013, before being acquired and relaunched by a British-Indian entrepreneur called Roheen Berry.

Berry’s initial instinct was to carry on where the original company had left off, and he funded development of what was set to become a new model powered with a BMW V8 engine. Then Europe’s move towards full electrification prompted a radical change of plan, the future car switched to a fully electric powertrain under the title “Project Thunderball.” The Bond-inspired moniker won’t make production, but even without a final name, Autoweek got the chance to visit Wiesmann’s factory in Dülmen, Germany, to drive a prototype version.

Different bits of Project Thunderball were both closer and further to finished specification. The design is pretty much done, the muscular carbon-fiber body work looking great, and the standard of fit and paintwork high. Styling is less retro than Wiesmann’s earlier offerings, with the striking front graphic combining the traditional radiator grille—here for form rather than function—with a striking masked graphic around the LED headlamps.